In a powerful moment, Fauci got back up to the podium and said he wanted to address his earlier comments about the disproportionate coronavirus deaths in black communities across the country after sitting at the side of the room and reflecting on the moment. He said it's not unlike what he spent the majority of his career on: stopping the spread of HIV/AIDS.

"I could not help sitting there reflecting about how sometimes when you are the middle of a crisis, like we are now with the coronavirus. It really does have ultimately -- shine a very bright light on some of the real weaknesses and foibles in our society," Fauci said. It was important to address those weaknesses, he said, noting they will still exist even as people see the threat of coronavirus dissipate.

"When all of this is over -- and as we said, it will end, we will get over coronavirus -- but there will still be health disparities which we really need to address in the African American community," Fauci said.

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Disparity is noted in who gets access to testing

In Nashville, three drive-thru testing centers sat empty for weeks because the city couldn't acquire the necessary testing equipment and protective gear like gloves and masks. All of them are in diverse neighborhoods. One is on the campus of Meharry Medical College — a historically black institution.

"There's no doubt that some institutions have the resources and clout to maybe get these materials faster and easier," said Dr. James Hildreth, president of Meharry and an infectious disease specialist.

His school is in the heart of Nashville, where there were no screening centers until this week.

Most of the testing in the region took place at walk-in clinics managed by Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and those are primarily located in historically white areas like Belle Meade and Brentwood, Tennessee.

Hildreth said he has observed no overt bias on the part of healthcare workers and doesn't suspect any. But he said the distribution of testing sites shows a disparity in access to medical care that has long persisted.

As the novel coronavirus sweeps across the United States, it appears to be infecting and killing black Americans at a disproportionately high rate, according to a Washington Post analysis of early data from jurisdictions across the country.

The emerging stark racial disparity led the surgeon general Tuesday to acknowledge in personal terms the increased risk for African Americans amid growing demands that public-health officials release more data on the race of those who are sick, hospitalized and dying of a contagion that has killed more than 12,000 people in the United States.

The disproportionate impact appears to be attributable to preexisting conditions — high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes and inadequate access to health care — that make African Americans more vulnerable to the disease. But the handful of examples above raises an urgent question: Does the effect hold true for African Americans throughout the country?

U.S. Surgeon General: 'I and many black Americans are at higher risk for covid'

On April 7, U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams, discussed the lack of health equity when it comes to the impact covid-19 may have on African Americans. (Reuters)

Unfortunately, there’s no way for the public to know. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is not providing nationwide data about covid-19’s impact on African Americans, Latinos or other racial and ethnic groups. The CDC customarily reports such data, but it has not done so with covid-19. Many states and counties are also not publishing the information. As of Tuesday, the CDC had not responded to inquiries about whether it has the demographic data and isn’t releasing it, or simply isn’t tracking the information.

In this critical moment, the federal government must collect and disclose racial data on covid-19 testing, cases and deaths. States and local governments should do the same. This demographic data could help save lives. Understanding which populations are most vulnerable allows public health officials to partner with messengers who can speak credibly to specific communities, offering up-to-date information about social distancing, sheltering in place and other preventive measures.

The data also would allow public health officials to more effectively deploy testing to particular areas, track the virus on social networks, and identify and contain its spread. This containment helps not just communities most vulnerable to covid-19, but all Americans.

Fauci: African Americans disproportionately have underlying conditions, so they're disproportionately at risk for this virus that preys on people with such issues. He calls on the community to rebouble efforts to keep people out of harm's way.

Fauci on disproportionate virus impact on minorities: "We are not going to solve the issues of health disparities this month or next month...but what we can do now, today," is to do distancing to keep people out of bad situations now.

I will say this. I have read that LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS of symptomatic people of all kinds allover the world have been turned away without testing.

And seems to me, your question is kind of absurd at this point of the game: it is actually pretty conventional medical advice in hot spots right now, i.e., looks like you may have it, stay home, self-isolate and until and if you have terrible breathing problem or other life threatening symptoms, don't bother us again. Testing in hot spots right now is used for those admitted to a hospital in order that they may be separated from other patients and that the carers take protection measures.

This is also why everyone in epidemiology is saying the numbers must be assumed to be much higher than reported, they know this is part of the picture, testing is rationed right now for many reasons.

A reminder that a couple weeks ago everyone was complaining about why only basketball players could get tested when no one else could. Because they were paying big bucks out of pocket, that's why.

p.s. EVERYONE WITH ANY SENSE WANTS MASS TESTING ASAP for as many as possible! It's not possible in the U.S. yet. Germany has somehow been able to do it and it has helped a great deal.

Making this a race issue right now is cart before horse. Yes we need testing, we all need testing. That's why we are sitting locked in our houses, ain't got enough testing.

And guess what, when everyone finally can have testing, you might not like them apples: those who test positive will be formally fully quarantined from being with other humans. In China they found that quarantining away from family was the most successful way: immediately taken straight from positive test at a fever clinic to quarantine clinic, all alone.

We are talking about patients with symptoms consistent with coronavirus not being tested for coronavirus. These patients would have been sent home. Do you think that we should review if that happened and if there was racial bias in the testing? Could the lack of early testing be a factor causing people to come back later with more aggressive disease?

YES, HELLO WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN READING. Testing is the problem. Such lack of available testing that it mus be rationed even as regards the symptomatic is why we must practice social distancing. Ideally we should be testing every single person in this country.

Furthermore, let me translate Dr. Fauci for you: Do the rich or powerful or well-insured get more health care to maintain health than others? Yes. Is the percentage of white people that are rich or powerful or well-insured larger than the percentage of people of color who are rich or powerful or well-insured? Yes. And this is a terrible problem. But we can't work on that right now, we have a world pandemic on our hands.

I linked to an article nothing that in Nashville, Vanderbilt affiliated sites got access to testing kits before Meharry affiliated sites.

I think the differences in testing could account for part of the problem.

Do you agree?

Edit to add:

I presented this before. Another analysis suggested that blacks with symptoms were less likely to be tested for coronavirus

The biotech data firm Rubix Life Sciences, based in Lawrence, Massachusetts, reviewed recent billing information in several states and found that an African American with symptoms like cough and fever was less likely to be given one of the scarce coronavirus tests.

Are we seriously parsing the question of whether or not in the world's most racist society the availability of medical intbervention of whatever kind is disproportionaltely availablet to those identified as belonging to the favored race?

Puhleeze!

One word:

Tuskegee

For extra credit, anyone who wants, support or oppose as you choose:

"Tuskegee (or it's equivalent) is an artifact of past misguided medicine. It could not happen today."

Fauci adds: "You will always have conspiracy theories when you have a very challenging public health crises. They are nothing but distractions. ... I would just hope we just put those conspiracy stuff and let somebody write a book about it later on. But not now."

Of course, silly me, I thought you might like to know more of Fauci's quotes from today and didn't want to start a new thread.

As long as you are going to insult others about supposed comprehension of nuance, I would like to return to my points upthread, with copy the Fauci quote that you yourself put at the top of this thread, highlighting the parts you apparently glossed over in trying to find something you wanted to hear

"When all of this is over -- and as we said, it will end, we will get over coronavirus -- but there will still be health disparities which we really need to address in the African American community," Fauci said.

The plight of poor health care access and poor health of many Americans of different groups (Native Americans, any one out there to play oppression Olympics with rmrd?) is going on a back burner in preference for priority to a world pandemic that threatens a world depression with high unemployment and countries worldwide taking on huge debt.

Rationing WILL happen. Not everyone will be able to do vaccine clinical trials, for example.It's part of the game:rationing by scientists.

Racism will not be solved during a pandemic and it will not be a priority, deal with it.

Those trying to stem the pandemic will mostly not give a damn what color you are if you are human and can transmit the virus to others.

I bet when your wish about testing all Afro-Americans is eventually fulfilled, and I'm pretty sure it will be-because they can be contagious as anyone else!-- then I'm sure if it happens before a vaccine you'll be bitching about positive Afro-Americans being put in quarantine.

Pandemic resolution is never going to be "fair". Period. This is not the time to look at this through a racialist frame.

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